Report Shows Hedge Funds Love AAPL, Priceline, Thermo Fisher

FactSet data indicates what the "smart money" is buying

Fact Set research has a great report out recently outlining the most popular investments among the 50 largest hedge funds.

Click to EnlargeData is from the end of Q4, but it’s still pretty interesting to break down which stocks are being bought across the board by the big hedgies on Wall Street.

At the top of the list is Priceline (PCLN), a stock that is on the buy list of 31 of the 50 largest hedge funds. Total hedge fund positions in PCLN stock at the end of last quarter tallied almost $4.8 billion — nearly 8% of of Priceline’s total market value.

Another popular pick among the top 50 hedge funds is healthcare diagnostic company Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO). According to FactSet, 29 of the top 50 funds held TMO stock at the end of the quarter worth $4.2 billion in shares — roughly 9% of Thermo Fisher’s total market cap.

Of course, PCLN stock and Thermo Fisher have been big on buy lists for a while. If you’re looking for positions that hedgies are plowing more cash into, consider that Apple (AAPL) just saw a 21% increase in the amount of cash hedge funds have invested — up to $10.5 billion stake in total. That’s a small fraction of Apple’s $480 billion market cap, of course, but still noteworthy because of the percentage increase.

Check out the complete list attached here.

Just remember: The data is a bit old now. And even if it was completely current, there’s no guarantee that the “smart money” knows what the heck it’s doing….